A Freedom Ride (Nonviolence working in Israel/Palestine)

[Tom Joad]

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1169333948

Mahatma Gandhi would have loved it. Nelson Mandela would have saluted. Martin Luther King would have been the most excited - it would have reminded him of the old days.

Yesterday, a decree of the Officer Commanding the Central Sector, General Yair Naveh, was about to come into force. It forbade Israeli drivers from giving a ride to Palestinian passengers in the occupied territories. The knitted-Kippah-wearing General, a friend of the settlers, justified this as a vital security necessity. In the past, inhabitants of the West Bank have sometimes reached Israeli territory in Israeli cars.

Israeli peace activists decided that this nauseating order must be protested. Several organizations planned a protest action for the very day it was due to come into force. They organized a "Freedom Ride" of Israeli car-owners who were to enter the West Bank (a criminal offence in itself) and give a ride to local Palestinians, who had volunteered for the action.

An impressive event in the making. Israeli drivers and Palestinian passengers breaking the law openly, facing arrest and trial in a military court. (This is extremely dangerous for Palestinians, as they are subject to administrative detention...being held as long as 6 months without trial)

At the last moment, the general "froze" the order. The demonstration was called off.

THE ORDER that was suspended (but not officially rescinded) emitted a strong odor of apartheid. It joins a large number of acts of the occupation authorities that are reminiscent of the racist regime of South Africa, such as the systematic building of roads in the West Bank for Israelis only and on which Palestinians are forbidden to travel. Or the "temporary" law that forbids Palestinians in the occupied territories, who have married Israeli citizens, to live with their spouses in Israel. And, most importantly, the Wall, which is officially called "the separation obstacle". In Afrikaans, "apartheid" means separation.

The "vision" of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert amounts to the establishment of a "Palestinian state" that would be nothing more than a string of Palestinian islands in an Israeli sea. It is easy to detect a similarity between the planned enclaves and the "Bantustans" that were set up by the White regime in South Africa - the so-called "homelands" where the Blacks were supposed to enjoy "self-rule" but which really amounted to racist concentration camps.

Because of this, we are right when we use the term "apartheid" in our daily struggle against the occupation.

[burythehatchet]

1. I wish the Israeli left had a voice that was

heard in America. The radical reactionaries in this country would like to pretend that the enlightened people in Israel don't exist or are "self-hating Jews". Their megaphone is loud and their ideology is bankrupt.

[Tom Joad]

3. Jewish Voice for Peace, US based organization

http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

[burythehatchet]

4. I've been browsing the web site of the original link

you posted. What a wonderful organization. I looked for a donate button but didn't find one. These are the good people in Israel that need worldwide support.

[Tom Joad]

5. Some suggestions....

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/
US based political action to end the occupation. check out plans for massive march on washington june 10


http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/
International Solidarity Movement.
Palestinian led nonviolent action against the occupation. Uri has participated in some of these actions.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. selfdelete n/t

[Jim Sagle]

8. Thank you for self-deleting. Engagement here may lead to engagement abroad -

via the butterfly effect.

[oberliner]

7. interesting points about south africa/israel

A lot of people do not seem to realize the critical distinctions outlined in this article.

It also seems that some expect a solution to this crisis that is akin to the way the situation in South Africa was resolved.

This article does a good job of disabusing anyone of that notion.

I agree with the conclusion of the piece:

"The end of the occupation will come in the framework of peace between the two peoples, who will live in two free neighboring states - Israel and Palestine - with the border between them based on the Green Line. I hope that this will be an open border."

[Tom Joad]

9. That will mean, of course, that the annexation wall will be torn down.

Because it annexes palestinian land (precisely its purpose of course, to create facts on the ground).

We as citizens must exert pressure on Israel (and especially US policy in regard to the Middle East), because nothing is likely to change the status quo unless we do. US politicians seem to have no interest in speaking up for the human rights of Palestinians, and seem only to rubber stamp Israeli policies, no matter how violent, no matter how counter-productive they are.

If this specific policy had gone forward, where no Palestinian could ride with Israeli cars, would you have expected any congressperson to raise their voice about it, except maybe a very small minority (Kucinich, Barbara Lee, and a few others). Would any US senator have expressed concern? I suspect it the only action in response to this would have been a aipac-sponsored resolution saying affirming Israel's "right" to such actions.